Building a YA Pedagogy

Buehler breaks down YA pedagogy and really makes a case for using YA in the classroom in the same way a traditional canonical text might be used. It makes me excited to introduce more of these contemporary texts because last year was my first year on the 6th grade team, and what I found is that the texts being offered up for choices for lit circles were often, well, vintage. Not to bash Hatchet, it was still a crowd favorite, but I kind of feel like if I read it in 6th grade, then there must be A LOT of new voices and texts that have come out since then that are just as good if not better, and we could be sharing THOSE with our kids, too. 

What complicates the YA pedagogy for me is that it requires the teacher to be so widely read. I am a SLOW reader, and I lack confidence that I have read enough texts to be the “match maker” Buehler describes. I have definitely had colleagues like this and I was always in awe of them and still turn to them in a pinch! We also have amazing media specialists who I think fill this role quite a bit, and I would love to become more like them. I liked Amanda’s suggestion from our Zoom of staying on top of Book Tok (I actually emailed her a few weeks ago asking if she had a book list to recommend - ha!). But yes, one thing I would like to improve in my classroom is the match making to great texts and the beefing out of our class library. My co-teacher basically said “we don’t use the books in here” when I started last year and I was surprised and saw an opportunity there. I brought my own books, of course, and as much as I love love love them, kids just aren’t reaching for The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle like I did, it lacks cover appeal, and I want to offer more inclusion and diversity and contemporary and relatable voices as well. 

One thing Bueler doesn’t really touch on but I think is a common theme from our class Padlets, is how to respond if the middle grades and YA topics are deemed too mature or “controversial” for the classroom. Fear is definitely in the room with us in our current climate, and I can say that for some more than others it takes some real bravery to even place a book with LGBTQ inclusion on the shelf. Moving forward, I want to be more courageous in that effort and equip myself with the research and responses to give me confidence should anyone come to challenge these books and their place in our room. 

I love a unifying theme or series of questions in a book study, and I thought Buehler offered up a really useful and universal one that could tie many different titles together, this idea of “coming of age and finding one’s place within family, school, or community” (12). This can cross genres and be applied over and over again throughout the year. Just a little mental post it I want to stick on the brain wall as I start pulling together plans for next year. Another idea that resonated with me was close reading as an act of love (29). I want to keep that lens in mind as I plan as well. The last piece I would like to ponder for my own YA pedagogy is how YA can be used to simply deconstruct and look at craft. This is its own form of differentiation, an advanced skill teachers can offer up to students who are ready to be extended further, but also could be less emphasized for readers for whom digging into the plot elements and essential questions and themes is enough of a challenge. 

YA and Middle Grades titles definitely have a worthy place in the classroom, and recognizing that is part of the work we need to do to deprogram from the cultural deficit lens with which society looks at teens. Their stories and concerns matter and are worth studying and unpacking in a community of readers. Deprogramming from labels, understanding they are often marketing techniques and Lexile numbers aren’t able to actually measure a book’s complexity, is another piece of building a YA pedagogy.